Mammalian moms, you're not alone! A female tsetse fly pushes out a single squiggly larva almost as big as herself, which she nourished with her own milk.

Please join our community on Patreon!   / deeplook  
SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt

DEEP LOOK is a ultraHD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.


Mammalian moms aren’t the only ones to deliver babies and feed them milk. Tsetse flies, the insects best known for transmitting sleeping sickness, do it too.

A researcher at the University of California, Davis is trying to understand in detail the unusual way in which these flies reproduce in order to find new ways to combat the disease, which has a crippling effect on a huge swath of Africa.

When it’s time to give birth, a female tsetse fly takes less than a minute to push out a squiggly yellowish larva almost as big as itself. The first time he watched a larva emerge from its mother, UC Davis medical entomologist Geoff Attardo was reminded of a clown car.

“There’s too much coming out of it to be able to fit inside,” he recalled thinking. “The fact that they can do it eight times in their lifetime is kind of amazing to me.”

Tsetse flies live four to five months and deliver those eight offspring one at a time. While the larva is growing inside them, they feed it milk. This reproductive strategy is extremely rare in the insect world, where survival usually depends on laying hundreds or thousands of eggs.

What is sleeping sickness?

Tsetse flies, which are only found in Africa, feed exclusively on the blood of humans and other domestic and wild animals. As they feed, they can transmit microscopic parasites called trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness in humans and a version of the disease known as nagana in cattle and other livestock. Sleeping sickness is also known as human African trypanosomiasis.

What are the symptoms of sleeping sickness?

The disease starts with fatigue, anemia and headaches. It is treatable with medication, but if trypanosomes invade the central nervous system they can cause sleep disruptions and hallucinations and eventually make patients fall into a coma and die.

+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1956004/...

+ More Great Deep Look episodes:

“Parasites Are Dynamite” Deep Look playlist:
   • This Killer Fungus Turns Flies into Z...  

+ Shoutout!

Congratulations to these fans on our YouTube community tab who correctly identified the function of the black protuberances on a tsetse fly larva polypneustic lobes:

Jeffrey Kuo
Lizzie Zelaya
Art3mis YT
Garen Reynolds
Torterra Grey8

Despite looking like a head, they’re actually located at the back of the larva, which used them to breathe while growing inside its mother. The larva continues to breathe through the lobes as it develops underground.

+ Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10+ per month)!

Alice Kwok
Allen
Amber Miller
Aurora
Aurora Mitchell
Bethany
Bill Cass
Blanca Vides
Burt Humburg
Caitlin McDonough
Cameron
Carlos Carrasco
Chris B Emrick
Chris Murphy
Cindy McGill
Companion Cube
Daisuke Goto
Daniel Weinstein
David Deshpande
Dean Skoglund
Edwin Rivas
EggRoll
Elizabeth Ann Ditz
Geidi Rodriguez
Gerardo Alfaro
Guillaume Morin
Jane Orbuch
Joao Ascensao
johanna reis
Johnnyonnyful
Josh Kuroda
Joshua Murallon Robertson
Justin Bull
Kallie Moore
Karen Reynolds
Katherine Schick
Kathleen R Jaroma
Kendall Rasmussen
Kristy Freeman
KW
Kyle Fisher
Laura Sanborn
Laurel Przybylski
Leonhardt Wille
Levi Cai
Louis O'Neill
luna
Mary Truland
monoirre
Natalie Banach
Nathan Wright
Nicolette Ray
Noreen Herrington
Osbaldo Olvera
Pamela Parker
Richard Shalumov
Rick Wong
Robert Amling
Robert Warner
Roberta K Wright
Sarah Khalida Mohamad
Sayantan Dasgupta
Shelley Pearson Cranshaw
Silvan Wendland
Sonia Tanlimco
SueEllen McCann
Supernovabetty
Syniurge
Tea Torvinen
TierZoo
Titania Juang
Trae Wright
Two Box Fish
WhatzGames

+ Follow KQED Science and Deep Look:

Patreon:   / deeplook  
Instagram:   / kqedscience  
Twitter:   / kqedscience  

+ About KQED

KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a publicsupported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media.

Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, which is also supported by the National Science Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Fuhs Family Foundation, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED.

#tsetsefly #sleepingsickness #deeplook